Wounded Healer - Chapter 1 part 2
Still taking my time through chapter one as Nouwen discusses the problems with "Nuclear Man". FYI -I hate the term Nuclear Man. The book was published in the 70's so maybe there was a fixation with Nuclear possibilities (i.e Cold war and everything). Anyway...
In the section searching for a new immortality Nouwen brought up a good point that I had to stop and think on for a while. To summarize he said,
Our sense of immortality is our source of creativity.
What do you think?
posted by Rich @ 7:28 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Immortality...live forever until someone chops your head off...ask the Highlander (did he survive the show?).
Physcial Immortality: I think that living longer drives many scientists and late night infomercial consumers to produce and purchase longevity products.
I do not think that our sense of immortality is our source of creativity. I think that the mystery of creativity is linked to IMAGE. It is a simple sounding answer but I think that IMAGE is where creativity begins.
Creativity is a RELATIONAL and FUNCTIONAL property of our design as our Being and as our Conscious reflects the IMAGE of God.
MAN searches for a new immortality because he is attempting to discover a non-God identity. The immortality search is the antagonist to the Gospel.
Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in diffferent ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. The Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God's nature. He holds everything together by what he says. After he finished the sacrifice for sins, the Son took his honnored place high in the heavens right alongside God, far higher than any angel in rank and rule. Did God ever say to an angel, "You're my Son, today I celebrate you" or "I'm his Father, he's my Son?" When he presents his honored Son to the world , he says, "All angels must worship him."
Hebrews 1:1-4.
I think Nouwen missed the mark a little bit claiming our "source" of
creativity is our sense of immortality. I wholeheartedly believe that our sense of immortality effects/influences our creativity, but it is not our source. Example of effecting creativity: If I believe the world is slowly going to hell in a handbasket and that it is not eternal, I will not seek opportunities to improve it socially, economically, ecologically.
If I think only of the present "Here and Now" there's no need to invent or invest in the future and I only care about and do things that bring value to my current situation.
I agree with Mark that creativity is tied into the very essence of
being human. Mark refers to the term IMAGE. Obviously Mark and I are both thinking about the creation story of the Bible. In the beginning...a creative God created a bunch of things... including a man and woman...God created them in his/her image (don't get hung up on the
her that's another thread altogether). He then told them go out and be creative so obviously they must have possessed the ability to be creative. And I think we all do in one form or another I think the creative source in us is a reflection of the creative powers of God at
work in us and though us as a result of being made in the image and likeness of a creative God. (Boy that was a mouth full)
Mark said something about creativity being relation and functional...
So how does creativity function outside of relationship of God? Is it still a reflection of God? Can we appreciate art, beauty, etc...outside of typically "Christian" expressions as reflecting God.
God created...and God said everything was good. Are all creations good?
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